In various computing systems, such as the eServer zSeries and ESA/390 systems, offered by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., a facility, referred to as the Multiple Image Facility (MIF), is provided. This facility enables the transparent sharing of channels of a given channel subsystem by multiple operating system images of a central processing complex (CPC). In particular, a CPC executing under logical partitioning control is partitioned into a plurality of logical partitions, which are coupled to the same channel subsystem of the CPC. Through MIF, channels of the channel subsystem are shared by the logical partitions, and thus, the operating systems executing therein, coupled to the channel subsystem. One embodiment of this sharing is described in, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,851, entitled “Method and Means for Sharing I/O Resources By A Plurality Of Operating Systems,” Brice, Jr. et al., issued May 9, 1995, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Although the Multiple Image Facility enables the sharing of channels between operating system images of a CPC configured to the same channel subsystem, a need still exists for a capability that extends the sharing of channels. For example, a need exists for a capability that enables the sharing of channels and/or other communications adapters between operating system images configured to different I/O subsystem images of the CPC.